Consumer Reports: Best, worst cars for fuel efficiency

Although Toyota has been plagued with recall after recall, the company is still receiving some positive press. Consumer Reports recently ranked the company’s best-selling hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius, as the most fuel-efficient vehicle on American roads today. The recent issue of Consumer Reports feature passenger vehicles with the best and worst fuel efficiency. These rankings were reached after the magazine tested each vehicle’s fuel efficiency in a real-world setting, as opposed to just using the official EPA fuel efficiency ratings.

Although the official EPA combined fuel efficiency rating for the winning Prius is 50 mpg, Consumer Reports' real-world testing led to a 44-mpg rating. Second place goes to the Smart ForTwo Passion. The tiny two-seater achieved 39 mpg. The Insight EX, Honda’s newest hybrid vehicle, tied for third place with the Volkswagen Golf TDI manual transmission with a 38-mpg rating.

The rest of the top 10 list:

Honda Civic Hybrid – 37 mpg

Ford Fusion Hybrid – 34 mpg

Scion xD (manual) – 34 mpg

Toyota Camry Hybrid – 34 mpg

Honda Fit Sport (manual) – 33 mpg

Mini Cooper (manual) – 33 mpg

When there is a 10 best list, there is typically a 10 worst list. Consumer Reports also ranked the 10 vehicles with the worst overall fuel efficiency. Unfortunately domestic automakers take seven of the 10 spots on this list, led by Ford with the 10 mpg F-250 Lariat diesel engine. The Ford’s real-world fuel economy was even worse than the Hummer H2, which came in with an 11-mpg rating.

The rest of the worst mpg list includes:

Cadillac Escalade (13 mpg)

Chevrolet Avalanche LT 5.3 (13 mpg)

Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD LTZ (13 mpg)

Ford Expedition EL Eddie Bauer (13 mpg)

Jeep Commander Limited 5.7 (13 mpg)

Lincoln Navigator Ultimate (13 mpg)

Nissan Armada LE (13 mpg)

Nissan Titan SE (13 mpg)

Only one of the Detroit 3 automakers (Chrysler, Ford and General Motors) had a vehicle on the top 10 list, yet these three companies dominated the list of vehicles with the worst real-world fuel economy. Domestic automakers have got to make huge strides in improving fuel efficiency across their product lines. One can only hope that when Consumer Reports repeats these rankings in coming years, we’ll see the Chevrolet Volt and other fuel-efficient domestic vehicles have more of a presence on the most fuel-efficient vehicles' list.